Howdy!

[Doug@ADG]

Well a friend of mine from an Online Gaming Forum mentioned this site. Seems like a good site/forum. Perhaps I can learn a few things and share some of my knowledge.

My name is Doug and I'm the Senior Staff Marine Biologist at Aquarium Design Group in Houston Texas. We specialize in high end custom installed aquaria. I specifically handle marine applications. If you are in the Houston area, please feel free to visit our gallery. If not, check us out on the web.

www.aquariumdesigngroup.com

I did a search and only found one reference to ADG, with a pic of a planted aquarium in our gallery that is well over a couple years old. In fact, we re-aquascaped it.

 

[Doug@ADG]

This is my Baby.

 

[Aztlan]

Welcome aboard!!

That's one beautiful tank. How many gallons is it?

 

[Hypostomus]

I've seen some of the planted tanks your group submitted to AGA contests. I can see the saltwater talent is just as good!

 

[quarryshark]

Wow, impressive!! Welcome!!

 

[Guest]

I want one... Tanks amazing

 

[Doug@ADG]

Thanks for the compliments.

That is our primary reef display in our gallery. It is 350 Gallons, 6 ft long, 3 ft wide, 30 inches tall. I can give more specs if people are interested. She has been running for about 3 years solid now. Quite an evolution in corals over time. I have the luxury of cycling things in and out as I see fit.

We have another 8ft X 30 x 30 concept reef that is still maturing. Rather than your typical reef with a fruitstand of every coral imaginable, it has groupings of corals, a more open look, with a very open sandy bottom.

 

[24 hours? NE!]

I'm sure you can here the sound of my jaw dropping on the floor. If I got something like that, it would come with divorce papers or a winning lottery ticket.

Glad to have you here. Feel free to tell my wife how important it would be to have one of those in our living room. LOL

 

[snapcrackler]

That is a great looking tank!! What are you using for lighting, salt brand, and supplements?

 

[BillyZ]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com Doug

I can give more specs if people are interested

I think "interested" would be an understatement! Thats a beautiful system and there's been a few folks here discussing similar sized systems recently, I know they in particular would be interested in the system, equipment, problems, solutions, you name it. We're detail oriented here. The more the better!

personal comment... I am a HUGE fan of wide tanks. I love the visual depth. They're just hard to locate in most homes. both because of footprint and weight. Any comments or suggestions on how to plan to accomodate something with such a large foot print of say 4 feet square, 2 feet deep?

 

[kreach]

That is a stunning tank... just beautiful! Welcome to AA!

 

[Doug@ADG]

Thanks for the added compliments. The GF is buggin' to get out to go to the movies. I'll try to get specs posted up when I have a chance.

Owww, ok now she's getting violent.

L8R

 

[Doug@ADG]

Ok Specs are as Follows:

Lighting: 3 x 400w Venture !0K Halide, 6 x 160 Watt Actinic VHO Flo

PMS Bullet 3 Skimmer w/ Iwalki 55 - Rarely Collects much,

Iwalki 100 Circ Pump

1/2 HP Chiller

8 Maxi Jet 1000/ 3 Cap 2500 Circulation pumps.

Octopus 3000 System

 

[Doug@ADG]

That is a great looking tank!! What are you using for lighting, salt brand, and supplements?

Heh, just coralife salt. We use a Mueller Water Conditioning System to purify the tap water. I use kent's Suppliments. Cal Tech A/B, Lugols, strontium, occationally Ess. Elements and Magnesium. There is a HUGE bioload, and while subjective, I can notice a difference in the health of the animals vs. when I swear off suppliments.

 

[Doug@ADG]

Welcome to AquariumAdvice.com Doug

I can give more specs if people are interested

I think "interested" would be an understatement! Thats a beautiful system and there's been a few folks here discussing similar sized systems recently, I know they in particular would be interested in the system, equipment, problems, solutions, you name it. We're detail oriented here. The more the better!

See above for equiptment.

Believe it or not I have the occational aiptasia creep up as a problem. I just nuke them with Kalk. The volume is so large I can do this because a little kalk won't spike my pH too much in a system like this.

My other issue is this freaking powder blue got a taste for clam about 2 weeks ago. Mind you it is 2 specific derasa clams in particular. I've temporarily got him satisfied with an algae sheet.

personal comment... I am a HUGE fan of wide tanks. I love the visual depth. They're just hard to locate in most homes. both because of footprint and weight. Any comments or suggestions on how to plan to accomodate something with such a large foot print of say 4 feet square, 2 feet deep?

Oh man, that would be beautiful. What do you mean by plans to accomidate it? Oceanic could build it, they're making stainless framed tanks now which are simply amazing. I have 2 of their 10 ft stainless framed monsters running now and love them. I have a similar plan for another display in our gallery for an open top clam tank. 3 x 3 x 18" deep. It will sit about 2 ft lower with suspended lighting so you can view the clams from the surface. We're planing on having it be open top, no trim either for the cleanest look possible. This project is probably 3-4 months down the road from even starting.

 

[dralarms]

All I can say is WOW. 8O That is one beatiful tank. Oh and BTW your tank now has a new home , as a background on my computer. . One of these days I'll have a tank that looks half that good.